One-sidedness, journalistic bias and unreported ‘price-tag’ actions

...The Israeli media simply doing its job would have two major effects the issue of terrorist acts against Jews. One is that the IDF and other security forces would take it more seriously and put more effort into prevention. The second and the more important result, however, is that more people in Israel and all over the world would appreciate the pressure on Israelis coming from the Palestinian side.

Yisrael Medad/Eli Pollak..
Media Comment/JPost..
28 May '14..

Over 48 hours (May 23-24), there were no less than 69 stone-throwing and fire-bombing attacks against Jews in Judea and Samaria (Yesha). On May 24, according to a report of the Hashomer Hachadash website, fires broke out at three separate locations in the area of Givat Nili and Regavim. Arson is strongly suspected. Givat Nili and Regavim are not “settlements” across the Green Line, rather they are located on the Western boundary of Wadi Ara. Such fires occur in that area at the rate of approximately 1,000 per year.

The Hakol Hayehudi news website reported on May 22 that that morning there were 10 stonings of Jewish cars in Yesha. Some were damaged, no injuries were reported. According to the same website, during the week preceding May 13 no less than 62 attacks against Jews in Judea and Samaria were recorded. Most of them were “only” stonings. Similar statistics were reported for the first week of May.

There is nothing new about any of this. The Megaphone website, in an article from November 23, 2013, reported that in the three weeks prior to the article’s publication, 786 stonings were reported in all of Israel, not including attacks directed at IDF forces. Yehudit Tayar, an emergency medic volunteer with the Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron organization and who served in an IDF combat unit, has so far published, with the clearance and confirmation of the IDF, 91 reports, each of which contains dozens of violent incidents that have occurred over the past three years in Judea and Samaria. These reports have appeared on news websites in both Hebrew and English, but are ignored by mainstream media outlets.

Ynet reported on May 8 that swastikas were spray-painted on three vehicles in Lydda. The report, by Eli Senior, ends with the laconic statement that the police had opened an investigation. On May 8, the Rotter website reported that swastikas were spray-painted on a bus parked in the vicinity of the ORT Shapira School in Jaffa. Swastikas were also reported on the Serugim website to have appeared in the ancient synagogue in Eshtamoa (located in the South Hebron region). The “price tag” logo did not appear in any of the cases described above.

Had it not been for modern technology we would not know that a war is taking place in Judea and Samaria.

No, this war did not break out as a result of the “breakdown” of the talks between Israel and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his henchmen. It has been going on all through the nine months of talks.

No one in the media addressed a question to Abbas about these events. PA negotiator Saeb Erekat, a frequent guest of Razi Barkai on Army Radio, was not asked questions such as, “Do you condemn such violent acts against civilians, holy places, etc.? Aren’t you also responsible for these acts if you do not actively seek to have them stop? Don’t you think that it is high time that your religious leaders stop their hate speeches in the mosques, so that such terror acts are reduced?”

One wonders why the IDF radio station is even willing to interview Erekat, an outspoken supporter of this kind of terror. The same station has not interviewed (and justifiably so) the “price tag” suspect caught in Yokne’am to provide him with a broad platform to “explain” his weltanschauung.

Medad - Why not call it "price tag policy"?

Yisrael Medad..
Green-Lined/JPost..
25 June '12..




This paper, as all the others, is reporting on violence perpetrated by social/ideological activists. Like this of what occured now in Jerusalem:

Two demonstrators were arrested in Jerusalem on Sunday night as the social justice protests took a violent turn a day after 85 were arrested in Tel Aviv. Around 200 protesters gathered outside the Prime Minister's residence at 8:00 as a response to the Saturday night protest in Tel Aviv, and then marched through downtown Jerusalem to Zion Square.

The protesters did not have a permit to gather outside the PM's residence or to hold a march. Demonstrator Khen Tsubery said the protest was intentionally done without a permit because permits have been difficult to obtain since the light rail began operated on Jaffa Road.

Tobin - Price Tags and the Bigotry of Low Palestinian Expectations

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary/Contentions..
22 June '12..

Earlier this week, a mosque in the West Bank was vandalized. This reprehensible attack is believed to be the work of radical Jews who wished to make it plain to Israeli authorities — and not as probably most Westerners think — the Palestinians, that the removal of settlers from housing that was not legally purchased or constructed with the permission of the state will carry with it a “price tag.” These so-called “price tag” attacks have grown in recent years, even though the overwhelming majority of settlers, not to mention the Israeli people, deplore them. But though any such attack on a religious institution is a stain on the honor of the Jewish people and inevitably generates negative coverage of Israel such as this feature published in the New York Times on Tuesday, the bottom line is that in a democracy thugs do not get their way. As the Times reported that same day, the Israeli government has secured agreement from the few inhabitants of Ulpana to leave their homes that were ruled by a court to be built on private Palestinian property in the vicinity of the existing and quite legal Beit El settlement. In doing so, the rule of law has been vindicated.

But amid the general condemnation of the behavior of the extremist settlers that for some calls into question the legitimacy of the entire Zionist enterprise, it is worth noting an element of the story generally missing from most accounts in the Western press of the “price tag” attacks as well as allegations of settler violence toward local Arabs. However wrong the extremists are–and they are dead wrong–their behavior has not occurred in a vacuum. To focus only on settler misbehavior ignores a context in which attacks on Jews in the West Bank is a regular occurrence. And that includes Arab attacks on synagogues. The problem is that the foreign press gives the Jewish violence the sort of “man bites dog” treatment that makes it worthy of notice, whereas Palestinian misbehavior is simply taken for granted. This bigotry of low expectations is at the heart of the problem.

Fresnozionism - Who really burned the mosque?

Delegation of left-wing
Israelis visits damaged Tuba
Zangaria mosque to 'make
amends'. But what if
it was torched by Arabs?

Fresnozionism.org
30 December '11



I have written about how the so-called ‘price tag’ actions have been a goldmine for anti-Israel propaganda. Although there seem to have been a few cases where vandals were actually caught, in others it seems as though the police have simply “rounded up the usual [right-wing activist] suspects.” After a burst of publicity about how they are doing their job, they are forced to release them for lack of actual evidence.

We know that the manufacturing of Israeli ‘crimes’ is a cottage industry for Palestinians. There was the notorious case of Mohammed Dura, the ‘Jenin massacre‘ in which nobody was massacred, the Gaza Beach incident (where navy ships allegedly fired on Palestinian picnickers), and countless incidents alleged to have occurred during Operation Cast Lead which found their way into the Goldstone Report. Hizballah also faked numerous ‘war crimes’, such as the rocketing of a Red Cross ambulance, etc.

So I think I can be excused for wondering how many of the ‘price tag’ actions were actually carried out by Jewish right-wing vandals and how many were ‘Paliwood’ productions. When a mosque was burned in the Arab village of Tuba Zangaria, I wrote this:

Sultan Knish - Price Tag Attacks and Peace

Daniel Greenfield
Sultan Knish
07 November '11

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2011/11/price-tag-attacks-and-peace.html



To the sort of people who think that a few teenagers living in a shack on a hilltop represent the greatest threat imaginable to the peace process and world peace-- the so-called "Price Tag" attacks in which local Jewish farmers strike back against Muslim attacks as a deterrent against further violence are an obsession.

Whether there are actually any "Price Tag" attacks and how many "Price Tag" attacks there are is open to question. Security agencies tasked with going after "right wing extremists" usually get their man and after a splashy announcement and prolonged detention have to let them go because their case doesn't actually exist. At that point it doesn't matter, the arrests have already been widely reported and the conclusions have all been drawn.

The investigation of a mosque burning incident has already resulted in arrests of people who couldn't have physically done it. But the arrests themselves are a form of "Price Tag" exacted by the authorities against community members to send a message. It's a particularly ironic form of message when the goal is to clamp down on those types of "eye for an eye" tactics.

States tend to command a monopoly on violence which is well and good, it's one of the things that states are for, and one of the few things that they do well, but that monopoly depends on the state exercising its proper function. The ugly truth is that the Israeli authorities have lost control of parts of the country, not just in places like Gaza and the West Bank which have been turned over to terrorist control, but in the Galilee and many Arab villages well within the '48 borders.

A sizable percentage of Israel's Muslim population lives in "No Go Zones", areas where Israeli police cannot operate and which they do not enter except on rare occasions. This isn't an entirely new development. Arab villages ran things their way, received state funding and avoided involving outsiders in their affairs. The village elders, some of whose families had backed the Israeli side in the war, took care of business and the authorities didn't ask too many questions.

Tobin - Which Matters More? Vandalism Against Mosques or Synagogues?

Jonathan S. Tobin
Commentary/Contentions
09 October '11



http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/10/09/arson-vandalism-synagogues-mosques-israel/#more-770424

The arson attack against a mosque in the village of Tuba Zanghariya in Northern Israel has been widely condemned throughout the world. Israel’s government and the Jewish state’s president also condemned the despicable incident, which has garnered wide attention in the international press, and both of its chief rabbis have gone to the mosque to express their sorrow.

But a Jaffa synagogue that was struck by a Molotov cocktail on Saturday after Arab protests against the Netanyahu government cannot expect the same solicitude. Nor should we anticipate a similar outpouring from Palestinian Authority figures after swastikas were painted on the Jewish shrine of the Tomb of Joseph in Nablus last week.

The willingness of a tiny minority of Israelis to engage in violence against Arabs is reprehensible. The so-called “price tag” assaults on Arab targets in the West Bank are an outrage and have rightly engendered a full-scale effort from Israeli police and military officials to find and prosecute the perpetrators. But the fact Arab violence against Jewish targets is not considered worthy of much indignation is of great concern.

Part of the problem is the bigotry of low expectations. Since Israelis and Jews are considered to be too civilized to engage in primitive acts of violence and vandalism against Muslims, these acts are treated as atrocities to be deplored. There is nothing wrong with anger about such incidents. On the contrary, Israelis and their friends should be angry about actions that sully the country’s good name and offend the values of the Jewish state.

But why are Palestinians not held to the same high standard? If a case of arson by a Jew is deemed worthy of international outrage, why not a fire bomb thrown at a synagogue? If “price tag” vandalism in Arab villages is troubling, why aren’t the same people troubled by swastikas daubed on a Jewish holy place, especially when hatred at the spot has already bubbled over into deadly violence against Jews earlier this year?

Unfortunately, hatred in the Middle East isn’t a one-way street with only Jews showing signs of intolerance, though you might be forgiven for thinking that if your only source of information about the region was the New York Times. Given the non-stop flow of anti-Semitic incitement that pours out of the Palestinian Authority’s official media, it is little surprise anti-Jewish attacks are so prevalent they are hardly considered newsworthy any more. Those who cry out for mutual co-existence and tolerance between Jews and Arabs must send their message to both communities.

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Cook - Price Tag and the dangers of debasing language

Ray Cook
As I See It –
Israel, Zionism and the Media
04 October '11


(Ray Cook has written an exceptionally spot-on piece. Addressing the terms of reference used by many well-meaning individuals, he points out, that in wishing to convey their outrage, they have instead, in their use of extreme language, debased and deprived the words of any meaning. Excellent insight. Y.)

On Sunday a mosque in the Bedouin village of Tuba Zangharia was attacked by unknown, but presumably Jewish assailants.

The Mosque was severely damaged. It appears highly likely that this attack was another in a series of attacks cynically labelled ‘Price Tag’ by Jewish Right Wing extremists.

Their avowed motivation is to make the Israeli government ‘pay’ for any actions this self-appointed group deems to be against the interests of settlers in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) or which this groups believes to be even the hint of a settlement freeze or preparation for eventual withdrawal.

Mainly religiously motivated, this group believes that Judea-Samaria is a God-given land which the Jewish people are not just entitled to settle but are duty-bound to do so.

The village of Tuba Zangharia is in Israel. An attack on any religious place of worship by Jews is extremely rare in Israel itself.

The Bedouin have a long tradition of support for the State of Israel, serving in the IDF. There is no logical reason, let alone justification for this attack.

Let me make this quite clear. This attack and all the others, wherever they may be, are shameful. I have written before about ‘ashamed Jews’ whose distorted view of Israel leads them to supports its enemies. I am a proud Jew and proud of Israel.

But I am ashamed of this action and those that have gone before.

Immediately that the attack became known the Israeli government and a consensus of MK’s across the political and religious spectrum condemned it utterly.

(Read full "Price Tag and the dangers of debasing language")

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MK Uri Ariel - 'Price-tag' terror is not the Jewish way

MK Uri Ariel
Israel Hayom
04 October '11

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=591

From time to time, history presents us with events requiring a clear-cut response that, sadly, we can't presume will happen automatically. That response is simple: There is no forgiveness for those who committed the horrific crime of destroying the mosque in Tuba-Zangarriye on Monday.

Many of those who condemned the act demanded a full investigation before casting blame on the entire national-religious sector. I too, of course, expect the police to investigate, and it is good that there are already some suspects in custody. In any case, I'm not worried. The perpetrator, whatever his or her motives, is not part of our community, even if he or she thinks so.

I do not fear incitement against the Right or settlers following this incident. Even if some officials try to leverage this affair against us, any Israeli with common sense knows that we advance our goals through building, not destruction.

Incitement and hatred are not, for the most part, the way we operate. Rather, they are part of the broken vision of our antagonists.

True, there is tension and anger between the various sectors of Israeli society. There are legitimate differences between us, Israelis, and Arabs living in Judea and Samaria and other parts of Israel. Harsh statements are fine, strong reactions are acceptable, but villainous acts by “price-tag” activists are absolutely beyond the pale.

The blind choice of a random mosque in a random village is reminiscent of the behavior of the ugliest and worst of our foes throughout history. These are pogrom tactics. Such burning hatred toward all non-Jews is unacceptable in our community.

I condemn this act and not just on my own behalf. The entire national-religious sector stands behind me.